


In the End

by Piper_Emerald (orphan_account)



Category: RWBY, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Crossover, Emperor and Empress AU, Empress Lance, Established Relationship, F/M, Fem!Lance, Galra Emperor Keith, Genderbending, Salem!Thanos, infinity war / end game au, klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 13:06:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18605116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Piper_Emerald
Summary: In the end, Lance just felt helpless.They were all there—the whole team. It had been a long time since they’d needed to stand together as Voltron, but when facing a threat as big as Salem, it seemed the best corse of action. In the end it hadn’t been enough. In the end, Lance had just stood there as the friends that she’d laughed, and cried, and bled with turned to dust.





	In the End

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ShiranaiAtsune](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShiranaiAtsune/gifts).



> This fic was written for ShiranaiAtsune, and since AO3's guidelines won't let me say anymore than that (salty Piper is salty) please check out my Tumblr (@piperemerald) for more details!
> 
> Written to commemorate End Game!

In the end, Lance just felt helpless.

She couldn’t count the amount of evil she and her team had faced on one hand. She’d known from the beginning that the universe wasn’t a safe place, and she’d known that sometimes you couldn’t save everyone, but this wasn’t like the times she’d lost comrades, it wasn’t like the times that people she cared about gave their lives to protect the universe. All of those times, the deaths hadn’t been in vain. All of those times, they’d still won in the end.

Lance wasn’t stupid. She’d always been aware of the odds against them, and never once had she forgotten that there could always be a chance that she wouldn’t come back. If that day ever came—when that day had to come, Lance thought she’d be ready. She never thought that she would be the only survivor. She never thought that she would have to see the look on Keith’s face when the both of them realized that they failed.

Failure. That had never been an option. No matter what, she’d thought that they would still be able to save the universe. She thought that even if people were lost, they didn’t live in a cruel enough world to let someone so evil win. Because Lance believed in good.

That naive hope died as Keith uttered his last words to her.

They were all there—the whole team. It had been a long time since they’d needed to stand together as Voltron, but when facing a threat as big as Salem, it seemed the best corse of action. In the end it hadn’t been enough. In the end, Lance had just stood there as the friends that she’d laughed, and cried, and bled with turned to dust.

It wasn’t all at once. First it was Hunk, smile still on his face; then it was Pidge, who seemed to only realize in that second what was happening. Shiro knew, though, if anything it looked like he welcomed it. Lance understood that. He hated feeling helpless too, he didn’t want to watch the people he loved die and live on. That would be her curse.

Keith had reached for her. There was fear in his eyes. She’d shouted his name. She’d tried to run, but she couldn’t move in time. He said that he loved her. That was the last thing he said to her.

She fell to her knees then. She covered the eyes of their child who shouldn’t have to see his father disappear into the air. Daniel wasn’t supposed to be here with them, but he’d stowed away on the Red Lion and they had determined that it was safer for him to be with his parents. They thought that they could protect him.

“Mommy, what’s happening?” He sounded so scared.

Lance pulled him close. She held him against her chest and closed her eyes. She wished over and over again that when she opened them this could all be just a dream.

“Mommy,” Daniel’s voice was softer now. Lance opened her eyes to see the look on his face. “I feel funny.”

Everything slowed down at that moment. Lance felt her breath catch in her throat. She felt every beat of her heart ache in her chest.

“Please,” her voice shook. “No, not this. Not him.”

Her son opened his mouth to say something. He looked so terrified. Later Lance would realize that was the only time that he’d ever seen her scared before. It was the first time she had ever let anyone see that in years

Then he was gone. Then Lance was alone. Then it was all over.

* * *

A year later Lance still wasn’t used to being a leader. With the rest of Voltron, and most of the leaders of the Galra Empire gone, everyone had looked to Lance for what to do next. So she had stepped up. She had to. She didn’t have the time to feel the grief or fear of half of the universe’s population and so many of her loved ones leaving her.

So the Empress stepped into the shoes of the Emperor and the Blue Paladin was accepted by the Black Lion.

Lance devoted herself to making sure that everyone left behind was being taken care of. This started with the empire Keith had left her, and quickly branched out to all of their allies. She tried to be strong, she tried to pretend that she wasn’t just hiding from the sting of watching her husband and son turn to dust in front of her.

Slowly, the universe adjusted to what they’d suffered at the hands of Salem. Slowly, people seemed to figure out how to move forward. Lance didn’t know why that hurt. Maybe part of her still couldn’t accept that a world without Keith and Daniel was real.

“I can’t do this anymore,” Lance finally said to Acxa.

They’d become closer over the months of grieving and moving forward. When Lance had been told that Veronica had died along with everyone else, it had crushed her. Acxa had been by her side and offered her so much comfort. Lance knew that part of the reason she did this was so she could only feel the loss secondhand. If she made things about Lance, it wouldn’t hurt so much.

“I know,” Acxa replied.

“No,” Lance shook her head. “I mean, I’m really not going to do this anymore. I’m getting them back.”

“How?” Acxa questioned.

“I don’t know yet,” Lance sighed. “But I’m going to.”

“You can’t change the past, Lance,” Acxa stressed.

That was when the thought first came to Lance. It was insane, but it wasn’t anymore insane than anything else she and the rest of Voltron had been able to accomplish. It wasn’t going to be easy, but that didn’t mean it was impossible.

“Maybe I can,” Lance said out loud.

She just needed a team. She just needed Voltron.

* * *

In the end, finding paladins was easier than Lance thought it would be. The moment she told Acxa her idea, Lance’s advisor and friend had promised that she would do everything she could to help. It only made sense that the Red Lion accepted her as it’s paladin. Lance would need a strong right hand, after all.

The others found them. Lance had kept in touch with everyone who helped and fought with them before everything was lost. She wasn’t going to ask the former crew of the Atlas to risk their lives once again, but it turned out she didn’t have to. It turned out they were just as determined as she was.

The Blue Lion chose Romelle. It made sense. Through the connection that Lance still had with Blue, she could feel why the lion would want someone like her piloting. Romelle was sharp, stubborn, and most of all kind. She wasn’t doing this because she was angry an frustrated, she here because she wanted to do what was right.

The Yellow Lion chose Kinkade. He was a lot like the former Yellow Paladin. They were both soft, but they knew how to get through tough situations. Lance trusted Kinkade, she knew that he’d been able too fight when the Galra tried to take Earth. She knew he could handle this.

They had trouble with Green. Lance had expected this. No matter how hard she searched, it felt like no one could take the place Pidge had left. Green didn’t want anyone else.

Lance constantly found herself sitting at the gate next to the Lions and asking Green what it was waiting for. It was hard not to get upset, but deep down, she knew what the hesitance felt like. She had it stuck in her chest too.

“Still no luck?” Matt asked one day.

He’d been spending more time with the team lately. Lance was grateful for that. She wasn’t sure they would be able to pull this off without the brain of a Holt on their side.

“Your sister’s shoes are hard to fill,” Lance told him.

“Tell me about it,” Matt smiled for a second. Then the smile faded. “This must be hard for you.”

“It is,” Lance admitted. “But I doubt it’s any harder than it is for you.”

Their conversation was cut off by Green roaring. That was a sound that Lance hadn’t heard in a long time. Both turned to see the door to the Green Lion open. Lance’s eyes shot to Matt.

“I think that’s for you,” she uttered.

“Yeah,” he looked awestruck.

“Hey,” Lance put her hand on his arm. “You don’t have to do this. I’m not going to ask you to, I know it’s a huge risk.”

“It’s one my sister took,” Matt reminded her. Then his smile was back. “Plus, she did everything she could to find me. It’s time I return the favor.”

And just like that they had their team. Now they just needed a plan. Lance wasn’t going to fly blind for this one. They had failed the first time, but she wasn’t going to let that happen again.

* * *

_There were arms around Lance. She opened her eyes to see her own bedroom, only it wasn’t filled with the sorrow that had lingered there for the past year. She could feel her husband’s breath ghosting against her neck. She turned to kiss him._

_Keith smiled into the kiss, probably not caring that he was ruining it. Lance couldn’t stop herself from giggling as well._

_The next thing she knew, there was a weight springing onto their feet. She let out a yelp in surprise at their son’s sneak attack. That soon was overcome by laughter as well._

_The three of them laughed together. They were happy. They were a family._

Lance awoke with a start. These kind of dreams were normal, she’d been having them since that day. For a few months, she’d been scared to go to sleep. It was so hard to relax when she knew that her subconscious would show her what she wanted most and couldn’t have.

As Lance pulled herself out of bed, it was with the determination that she would be able to go back to that time where everything had been okay. Her old life hadn’t been perfect, and she knew she would never live without danger, but as long as she had Keith by her side and Daniel was safe Lance would dive into any fire.

She reached out to the allies that they’d made back when they thought that they would be able to stop Salem the first time. Only two of them had survived.

They had met Team RWBY when all of this started. The group was from a distant Galaxy that had been removed from the war that Voltron had defended the universe in so long ago. Salem had been from that Galaxy too.

Back when they thought they wouldn’t be able to fail, the team had thought that the only chance they had of stopping Salem was to turn her to stone. Apparently their leader had that power in her eyes. Lance didn’t understand magic, but she had seen everything that Allura could do. She and everyone else had trusted this would work.

When it didn’t, the leader—who seemed just as young as Lance had been back when she first found the Blue Lion—and her friend returned to their galaxy carrying the weight of everyone they had lost. Lance didn’t contact Ruby or Ren over the past year. She didn’t have a purpose to.

Or, she hadn’t until now.

“We don’t know that it’ll work,” Lance told the two. “But it might.”

“Do you have a plan?” Ren—the stoic boy who had screamed the loudest when the bodies of his teammates disintegrated in front of him—asked her.

“We’re working on that,” Lance told him.

“We’re in,” Ruby’s voice was more confident that Lance had expected.

“The odds aren’t great,” Lance felt the need to warn her.

“I don’t care,” Ruby sounded as determined as Lance felt. “We’re getting them back. We have to.”

* * *

The answer wasn’t all that difficult to think of, Lance just had to look back on everything she’d learned from all of the battles she’d fought before. She just had to consider that if Voltron could travel to the source where all realities were sewn together, then maybe they could use the same combination of magic and quintessence to travel a year back.

So Lance made getting them there her job. Voltron would make sure they were at the right moment, that they were fighting exactly where they had failed before. They would stall Salem and when she was at her most vulnerable, Ruby would stop her permanently.

“If this doesn’t work, we’re not coming back are we?” Ruby asked Lance the day that everything was ready.

Lance had herd that tone before. In that moment the girl standing in front of her remained her so much of herself. She was burying the same fear that Lance used to do everything that she could to hide. That fear had never really gone away at she got older. Lance had just gotten better at putting on a brave face. She was pretty sure the only person who had really been able to read her was Keith.

“I don’t think so,” Lance said out loud.

Ruby just nodded. She was a lot braver than Lance had been at her age. Lance hoped that she wouldn’t be leading her to her death. She hoped that the trust everyone was placing in her wouldn’t come crashing down around all of them.

This was what Keith and Shiro must have felt all of those times that they led Voltron into battle. Right now Lance was a part of a team, but that didn’t change that she was the one calling the shots. It didn’t change that she was the Black Paladin now.

“Are you ready?” Lance turned to Acxa.

It was time. With the help of everyone left behind, they knew for a fact that they could get where they needed to go. Now it was up to them.

“Yes,” Acxa nodded. She said the word with confidence, Lance knew that she was afraid too, but she wasn’t going to show that now. Lance used to be like that too. She used to be the cocky right hand that Keith had needed. She used to be the one that the leader turned to for support.

“Okay,” Lance let out a breath. “Let’s do this.”

They had decided that only Voltron would go through. Ruby and Ren were on board the Blue Lion with Romelle. Lance had decided that this was the safest bet incase things didn’t go to plan and her and Acxa needed to put their lives ahead of the others.

Lance had told the team that if they succeeded everyone would live, but really she wasn’t sure. In reality, she was ready to die to fix the universe. She would give her own life in a heart beat if it meant that she could bring back Keith, and Daniel, and the others.

* * *

In the end, she fought and put her life on the line, and when she was hurt she couldn’t find it in herself to care.

In the end, when Lance closed her eyes for what she thought would be the last time, it was to the sight of Ruby turning Salem to stone.

In the end, she knew they had won.

* * *

hen Lance opened her eyes she was standing with her team. For a second, she thought that everything she’d just seen had been a lie. For a second she thought that they were welcoming her to whatever world existed after death. Then her eyes met Keith’s and she nearly lost her footing as she realized what was going on.

She was alive. She was in the body that she’d had a year ago, the moment before everyone she cared about had turned to dust. Only now, they were fine. Everyone was okay. It had worked.

Time was a funny thing. Lance had never pretend to understand the science behind what they’d done, that wasn’t exactly her area even if it had been her idea. When Matt found her in the chaos that was the moments after half the universe wasn’t destroyed he explain the details to her. Later, the both of them made sure that the rest of their tiny team understood it as well.

They had traveled back in time to undo what happened, and because of that the entire year all of them remembered hadn’t happened.

Time was a fragile thing as well. This meant that even though they had saved the universe and everyone they had lost, they couldn’t ever speak about it again. If they did, they’d risk reputing everything.

Lance was alright with this. She didn’t want Keith to know that she’d seen him and their son died. She didn’t want Daniel to ever think that there had been a reality where his parents hadn’t been able to protect them. She was okay with carrying the truth and the pain that it bore alone.

Still, there were times where she caught Keith looking at her with a pensive expression. It was the kind of look that she used to receive from him back when they were first getting to know each other. It wasn’t like he was trying to read her mind, but like he knew that he couldn’t.

“You did something,” he finally said one day. Months had passed since the universe had survived Salem. Lance had thought that they had finally put it behind them.

“What?” She just looked at him.

“I know you did,” he was smiling now. “And I know if you’re not telling me there’s probably some complicated reason why.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lance said because she had to.

“Right,” he just shook his head. “That’s okay. I know you did something, and I’m proud of you.”

“Oh yeah?” She hummed.

“Yep,” he pulled her into a tight embrace. “But I’m not surprised.”

In the end, Keith had more faith in her than she ever had in herself. In the end, Keith knew that as long as she was alive the universe was safe. In the end, Lance knew she was never going to feel helpless again.


End file.
